Scott Holm's bloghttp://iqacademy.com/blog/scott-holm
Your education clicks at iQ Academy!
iQ Academy is a complete online middle and high school that fits your student, your schedule, and your family. As an accredited, public, tuition-free school, we offer an innovative, high-quality alternative to the traditional learning experience.enAnnouncing iQ Academy Los Angeleshttp://iqacademy.com/blog/2010-09-01-announcing-iq-academy-los-angeles
<p>Parents and students - we are very excited to tell you about a brand new opportunity for students in&nbsp;Southern California. Today we are announcing the launch of our newest virtual school, iQ Academy Log Angeles. iQ Academy L.A. is an online school authorized by the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.rowlandschools.org/">Rowland Unified School District</a> which provides families with a rigorous, engaging online curriculum and outstanding, individualized academic support. <img width="275" height="84" align="right" alt="" src="/sites/iqacademy.com/files/images/iqca-logo.gif" /></p>
<p>iQ Academy L.A. is an online high school and middle school for grades 6-12, and is available to students who reside in <a target="_blank" href="http://losangeles.iqacademyca.com/program/approved-counties">Los Angeles, Kern, Orange, San Bernardino and Ventura counties</a>.</p>
<p>And the best part of all of this is that there is still time to enroll and complete a full school-year at iQ Academy L.A.! Enrollments are now being accepted, and the first day of school is Monday, September 27th. If you live in one of the approved counties listed above, you don't want to miss this opportunity.</p>
<p>At iQ Academy L.A., students:</p>
<ul>
<li>Can choose from a wide variety of <a target="_blank" href="http://losangeles.iqacademyca.com/curriculum/high-school">media-rich online courses</a> including world languages, digital photography or web design, all backed by over 30 years of distance learning experience.</li>
<li>Get class instruction from teachers via weekly Elluminate sessions and connect with teachers by phone, email and chat.</li>
<li>Have access to 24/7 technical support and an iQ Academy email account.</li>
<li>Can receive a loaner laptop with the latest software. (Full-Time students only)</li>
<li>Have 24/7 access to courses and grades online.</li>
<li>Follow the course pace and weekly schedule completing readings, assignments, quizzes and tests, with support from guidance counselors and academic advisors.</li>
</ul>
<p>In addition to these benefits, <a target="_blank" href="http://losangeles.iqacademyca.com/community/parent-involvement">parents receive many benefits</a>, including the ability to monitor progress and performance through observer access and monthly progress reports to ensure that their student is on track and there are no surprises at the end of the semester.</p>
<p>If you live in Southern California and are interested in iQ Academy L.A. for your student, visit <a target="_blank" href="http://losangeles.iqacademyca.com">http://losangeles.iqacademyca.com</a> today!</p>announcementsiQCAnewsWed, 01 Sep 2010 18:17:31 +0000Scott Holm400 at http://iqacademy.comIt's Time To Revisit Your Facebook Privacy Settings...Again!http://iqacademy.com/blog/2010-07-30-its-time-revisit-your-facebook-privacy-settings-again
<p>Every few months or so, Facebook announces a new milestone figure regarding their user numbers. Most recently, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-facebook-20100722,0,6548800.story">Facebook announced</a> that it now has more than 500 million users around the globe, and all signs point to continued growth (some predict that Facebook could hit 1 billion members within a year).</p>
<p>Although this is great news for Facebook, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38474945/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/">other recent news</a> highlights a very concerning event in which user data for more than 100 million members was downloaded, packaged in a file, and made available for download to anyone who wants it. Now, before anyone jumps to conclusions, you must know that this user information was not a breach of security, but instead a mass-download of personal information that users had chosen - purposefully or ignorantly - to leave visible to the public.</p>
<p><a href="http://iqacademy.com/blog/2010-07-30-its-time-revisit-your-facebook-privacy-settings-again" target="_blank">read more</a></p>facebooksafetysecuritysocialsocial networkingFri, 30 Jul 2010 23:02:46 +0000Scott Holm392 at http://iqacademy.comiQ Academy In The News - July 23, 2010http://iqacademy.com/blog/2010-07-23-iq-academy-news-july-23-2010
<p>Online learning continues to be a hot topic in the blogosphere, check out some recent news items about online education and iQ Academy:</p>
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<ul>
<li><a target="_blank" href="http://yourdailyblarg.blogspot.com/2010/07/school-blues.html">School Blues</a> From Your Daily Blarg</li>
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<li><a target="_blank" href="http://connectwithyourteens.blogspot.com/2010/07/benefits-of-online-learning-for-teens.html">Benefits of Online Learning for Teens</a> From Connect With Your Teens Through Pop Culture and Technology</li>
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<li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.underthegoldenappletree.com/2010/06/online-school-solutions-review-could.html">Online School Solutions - Could This Be Your Solution?</a> From Under the Golden Apple Tree</li>
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<li><a target="_blank" href="http://youthfultips.blogspot.com/2010/06/online-education-is-it-for-you.html">Online Education - Is It For You?</a> From Health, Beauty, Children &amp; Family</li>
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<li><a target="_blank" href="http://natashaxavier.blogspot.com/2010/06/wwwonlineschoolsolutionscom-is-awesome.html">Online School Solutions Is Awesome!</a> From A Day In The Life</li>
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<li><a target="_blank" href="http://homeschoolparent.blogspot.com/2010/06/review-of-kc-distance-learning-website.html">Review of KC Distance Learning Website</a> From Homeschool Parent</li>
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<li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.robynsonlineworld.com/2010/07/online-learning-alternative-to-regular.html">An Online Learning Alternative To Regular School</a> From Robyn's Online World</li>
</ul>newsonline learningFri, 23 Jul 2010 18:48:04 +0000Scott Holm391 at http://iqacademy.comDiigo: Your Digital Notebook For the Entire Webhttp://iqacademy.com/blog/2010-07-15-diigo-your-digital-notebook-entire-web
<p>Call me forgetful, but I read so many things on the web that I often can't remember where I found them. Sure, I could bookmark them all in my browser, but I'd soon have thousands of bookmarks to dig through later - no thanks! The good news is that now I don't have to remember everything I find onilne, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.diigo.com/index">Diigo</a> will do that for me!</p>
<p>Diigo is a free, cloud-based social bookmarking service that enables you to bookmark, tag and annotate any webpage you find, giving you the ability to easily save resources that you might want later. Everything is saved to your Diigo account online, and is accessible from any computer or mobile device with an internet connection. This is a great tool for virtual school students as most of the schoolwork is done online.</p>
<p>On top of centralizing all of your bookmarks, Diigo gives you the ability to tag your bookmarks with keywords that you can use to group similar pages together. Let's say you come across a website with some great Biology resources, and later you find a news article about a new species of snake discovered in the Amazon rainforest. You may want to cite both of these resources on a Biology paper at the end of a course, so you can simply visit Diigo and quickly bring up the bookmarks you tagged with the term &quot;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.diigo.com/search?adSScope=community&amp;what=biology">Biology</a>&quot;.</p>
<p>And what if you save a new bookmark, but you want to remember later which part of the page caught your attention? Using Diigo, you can highlight parts of a webpage and take notes, so when you visit that page again, you know exactly what you're looking for.</p>
<p>Diigo also has a vast online community where people share the things they discover on the web. If you want to find the best, most popular websites about a certain topic, you can easily browse the Diigo community for the most-saved pages by keyword. The more people who saved it, the more popular (and potentially valuable) it is.</p>
<p>Although I enjoy using Diigo to bookmark all of the great things I find on the web, this free tool is an incredibly valuable virtual notebook that students can use to build a clean, organized bank of the best parts of the web.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Browser Tools Make Bookmarking the Web Easier <img alt="Image" style="float: right" src="http://iqacademy.com/sites/iqacademy.com/files/imagepicker/9/diigo-extension.gif" /></strong><br />
It would be cumbersome to visit Diigo.com every time I need to bookmark something, and thankfully, I don't have to. Using the free Diigo Toolbar, Diigolet or Diigo extension for Chrome, you can quickly save bookmarks and notes with the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.diigo.com/tools/">click of a button</a>.</p>
<p><strong>New in Version 5.0 - Images and Screenshots.</strong><br />
Diigo recently release <a target="_blank" href="http://blog.diigo.com/2010/07/01/diigo-v5-0-collect-highlight-then-remember/">Diigo v5.0</a>, which now gives you the ability to collect and annotate screenshots and pictures. Create an even more detailed library of web content than ever before.</p>
<p><strong>Also Available on the Mobile Web</strong><br />
As mobile devices grow in popularity, more people are browsing the web on smartphones and iPads. Fear not, as there are free mobile tools for <a target="_blank" href="http://www.diigo.com/tools/power_note_for_android">Android</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.diigo.com/tools/power_note_for_android">iPad</a> that allow you to use the best features of Diigo on the go.</p>
<p><strong>Login Using Your Favorite Services</strong><br />
I wish I had known this when I signed up, but there is no need for you to <a target="_blank" href="https://secure.diigo.com/sign-up?referInfo=http://www.diigo.com">create a new account</a> just for Diigo. You can get started by simply using your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Yahoo! account, giving you one less password to remember.</p>
<p>Check out the video below for other great ways to use Diigo, the free cloud-based bookmarking and note-taking tool.</p>
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<p>Virtual schools are growing in popularity as many families continue to discover that they have the option to choose the right education for their children. Read on to see what people are saying about iQ Academy and our partner schools.</p>
<ul>
<li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.journalscene.com/news/Online-high-school-student-to-graduate-early">Online High School Student to Graduate Early</a> From the Summerville Journal Scene (South Carolina)</li>
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<li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.morningsun.net/lifestyles/x2134214425/Two-from-area-graduate">Two From Area Graduate</a> From The Pittsburg Morning Sun (Kansas)</li>
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<li><a target="_blank" href="http://images.burrellesluce.com/image/3343K/3343K_1561&amp;site=3343">A Virtual Success: iQ Academy Graduate to Attend Dartmouth College</a> From the Waukesha Freeman (Wisconsin)</li>
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<li><a target="_blank" href="http://images.burrellesluce.com/image/3343K/3343K_1562&amp;site=3343">iQ Academy Graduates 166</a> From the Waukesha Freeman (Wisconsin)</li>
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<li><a target="_blank" href="http://sixfeetundersite.blogspot.com/2010/06/online-learning-for-igeneration.html">Online Learning for the iGeneration</a> From the Six Feet Under Blog</li>
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<li><a target="_blank" href="http://thedirtytshirt.com/on-demand-learning-for-todays-igeneration-review">On Demand Learning For Today's &quot;iGeneration&quot;</a> From the Dirty T-Shirt Blog</li>
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<li><a target="_blank" href="http://brainfoggles.com/2010/06/23/online-classes-with-kc-distance-learning/ ">Online Classes With KC Distance Learning</a> From the Brain Foggles Blog</li>
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<li><a target="_blank" href="http://meanmamareviews.wordpress.com/2010/06/23/online-school-solutions-could-this-solve-your-schooling-needs/ ">Online School Solutions: Could This Solve Your Schooling Needs?</a> From Mean Mama Reviews</li>
</ul>newsonline learningMon, 12 Jul 2010 23:02:22 +0000Scott Holm386 at http://iqacademy.comWe Asked and Our Students Answered: Why Do You iQ?http://iqacademy.com/blog/2010-06-22-we-asked-and-our-students-answered-why-do-you-iq
<p>It's no surprise that students choose to attend virtual schools for a variety of unique reasons. Whether they need an alternative to the students-working-at-the-same-pace traditional school environment or they needed a flexible schedule to accommodate a part-time job, each of our students has his or her unique reason for choosing iQ Academy.</p>
<p>We wanted our students to tell us, first hand, why they chose to enroll with iQ, and we got some great answers! In response to our request for a video that explains, &quot;<a href="/why-do-you-iq-contest">Why Do You iQ?</a>&quot;, nine students sent us their story for you to see.</p>
<p>Click on over to the <a href="/why-do-you-iq-contest">Why Do You iQ?</a> video page to see them for yourself, and don't forget to vote for your favorite video.&nbsp;</p>
<p align="center"><a href="/why-do-you-iq-contest"><img width="711" height="172" alt="" src="/sites/iqacademy.com/files/images/why-do-you-iq-preview.jpg" /></a></p>meet our studentsstudent storiesTue, 22 Jun 2010 21:44:19 +0000Scott Holm361 at http://iqacademy.comWhy Now Is a Great Time To Consider AP Courseshttp://iqacademy.com/blog/2010-06-07-why-now-great-time-consider-ap-courses
<p>One of the greatest benefits of attending a virtual school is the expansive list of <img width="120" height="181" align="right" alt="" src="http://iqacademy.com/sites/iqacademy.com/files/images/blog-graduation-happiness-jameskm03-flickr.jpg" /> courses students can choose from. Even today, students in rural or underfunded school districts have very limited access to the curriculum and instructors needed to serve a broad array of student needs.</p>
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<p>At iQ Academy we give many students choices they might not otherwise have by offering from a few to nearly 20 Advanced&nbsp;&nbsp;Placement&reg; (AP) courses for high school students. Sure, many students don't want or don't need AP&reg;&nbsp;courses, but college-bound students should look closely at the opportunity for several reasons:</p>
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<p><a href="http://iqacademy.com/blog/2010-06-07-why-now-great-time-consider-ap-courses" target="_blank">read more</a></p>advanced placementcollegeMon, 07 Jun 2010 20:49:11 +0000Scott Holm353 at http://iqacademy.comGoogle Earth: Explore Our Planet in 3Dhttp://iqacademy.com/blog/2010-06-03-google-earth-explore-our-planet-3d
<p><a target="_blank" class="vt-p" href="http://iqacademy.com/sites/iqacademy.com/files/images/google-earth-screen-midway-island.jpg"><img width="130" height="130" align="right" alt="" src="http://iqacademy.com/sites/iqacademy.com/files/images/large_google-earth-screen-midway-island.jpg" /></a> Something you will learn about me over time is how much I love technology. I love to play with the newest gadgets and software, but what I consider to be my favorite piece of technology has actually been around for several years. I have yet to find something that impresses me as much as <a target="_blank" class="vt-p" href="http://earth.google.com/">Google Earth</a>, a free virtual globe that lets you explore our planet in great detail, or you can even take a trip the moon or Mars.</p>
<p><a href="http://iqacademy.com/blog/2010-06-03-google-earth-explore-our-planet-3d" target="_blank">read more</a></p>googlesoftwaretoolsThu, 03 Jun 2010 21:57:42 +0000Scott Holm350 at http://iqacademy.comWelcome To Our Blog!http://iqacademy.com/blog/2010-05-26-welcome-our-blog
<p>Yes, yes, thank you for the applause, we appreciate it! Welcome to the brand new iQ Academy blog. We are very excited to bring you the latest news, events, tips and tools to help you get the most out of your virtual school education. We will also introduce you to the people who make iQ Academy work, and the ways they are helping to shape the future leaders of our world, one student at a time.</p>
<p>As always, we welcome your feedback in a variety of ways. Feel free to leave us a comment or <a href="/blog-feedback">submit a question</a>. We want to hear what you think, and what you want to know more about.</p>
<p>So go ahead and subscribe to this blog via <a target="_blank" href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=iQAcademy&amp;amp;loc=en_US">email</a> or <a target="_blank" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/iQAcademy">RSS</a>, and let's have some fun!</p>
<p>Until next time...</p>first postintrowelcomeWed, 26 May 2010 23:28:01 +0000Scott Holm351 at http://iqacademy.com